Experiential Techniques in Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy with Personality Disorders: The Therapeutic Relationship

This book provides a guide to using experiential techniques, such as imagery rescripting, chairwork, body work, and mindfulness in metacognitive interpersonal therapy to treat personality disorders and PTSD, along with their many comorbid conditions.

Psychotherapy for patients with personality disorders and their associated symptom disorders needs (1) a tailored case formulation, continuously updated and shared with the patient; (2) the use of experiential techniques to challenge embodied, automatic, hard-to-change interpersonal patterns; and (3) active attention to the therapeutic relationship. This book will help readers work along these dimensions, acting as a guide to constructing a client-first model of their own psychological functioning that can be used as a roadmap to change. It includes specific procedures for addressing problems in the therapeutic contract, devising and enacting imagery rescripting and other techniques, interrupting repetitive thinking, and so on. It also includes real case examples, with rich and detailed clinical exchanges for the procedures described.

This comprehensive text will help practicing clinicians of any orientation in working with patients suffering from personality disorders and their associated symptoms.